The Akombe Savannah
The seemingly endless expanse of the Akombe Savannah is an everchanging land, a place always under the sway of the seasons, a place forever unpredictable in how it will change next. A common Akombean saying goes as follows: "The earth you sleep upon shall not be the earth you awake upon." Though perhaps hyperbolic, it conveys loud and clear that unlike most other regions, the Akombe Savannah's sensitivity to the weather, climate, and seasons is unparalleled. Because of this, rivers change their course constantly, a place that may be flourishing one season may be arid and lifeless the other, as if the all the gods' indecisiveness and spontaneity has been focused in this one region. To think that a place like this could be inhabited by humans - who so characteristically settle down in cities and villages - seems absurd. Yet the Akombeans dare to think otherwise. To remain stationary in a place like the Akombe Savannah would be an open invitation to death. The animals have long since understood this message: the water buffalo are constantly on the move, searching restlessly for flowing rivers and water holes, and where all the grazers go, so too do the predators - lions, hyenas, and the like. The humans, therefore, must be no different, if they are to have any hope of survival. In this train of thought, the Akombeans have developed arcane technology that, to the eyes of many northern folk, seems nothing short of dreamlike, technology that allows entire cities to lift themselves from the ground and migrate along with the everchanging nature that surrounds them. No Akombean city ever remains in one place for more than a month before nature changes yet again, and they are forced to move, or risk starvation. And once they move, the land is left as if they were never there. The Akombeans, as they put it, "ride upon the currents of nature like leaves in a river." This closeness to nature is a core ideal of the Akombeans too. They have seen what the Gaun Eil did to the world all those twelve thousand years ago, and vowed to undo what damage they had done, to never make the same mistake and to respect nature as a hospitable host, not a plaything for mortals to abuse. Therefore, with technology salvaged from old Gaun Eil ruins and repurposed for a cleaner and more respectful use, the Akombeans pride themselves on being not only the most technologically advanced civilization to exist, but also the one who leaves the smallest mark on the earth they inhabit. ...But perhaps even "civilization" is an improper descriptor of what Akombean society is. Societal Structure Sun and Water In Akombean society, these two things matter the greatest. The Akombe Savannah, though not a desert like the neighbouring Alorian dunes, is not a place rich on water, and that is what makes it so ceaselessly important. Rivers change and oases dry up, water holes disappear with the shift of seasons, and the rain season lasts only a single month. This means that not only must the Akombeans be constantly on the move, as they do with their hovering cities of wanderlust, but they must also be unparalleled in knowing where to find water, once their own supply has disappeared. Therefore, quite early in their existence as a society, Koptwa Awakesi founded the Academy of Hydrology, wherein students are taught old and news ways of knowing how to predict an otherwise chaotic environment, and through that knowledge guide their surrounding society to water holes and rivers. Those who graduate at the Academy of Hydrology, Hydrologists, become highly sought-after individuals, often-times called 'sages', for without them, Akombean society would not take long to crumble. But the Hydrologist are not alone in their importance. The technology that the Akombeans have developed is based on old ruins from the Gaun Eil, but the Akombeans have heeded the warnings of using Shamanism in magi-tech (for last time that happened, it ended in the extinction of human kind), and have instead repurposed the old Gaun Eil technology to be able to function on one source of power alone: the sun. But such technology requires learned minds, and therefore, it did not take long before the Academy of Heliology was established by Matadi Okwendi, in which Heliologists, wielders of the power of the sun, are taught and trained. These Heliologists make use of Wizardry, not Shamanism, to draw upon the power of the sun, and not only develop the technology that allows the Akombean cities to hover and wander, but also maintain and improve on that same technology. Like the Hydrologists, none of Akombean society would function, if not for the Heliologists. Everchanging Cities As if it was not enough already, Akombean society continues to challenge the norms of conventional civilization - even going as far as challenging the very concept of civilization itself. For just like the environment that surrounds them, Akombean cities never remain the same for very long. All cities are built from individual hovering houses or other buildings that attach themselves to one another and choose to stick together for a period of time, often sharing in the water they have found, and while they are attached, they form something akin to a commune, a community of individuals taking an equal share in the bounty of the land, complete with councils and laws and democracy. But as soon as a water supply has faded, these cities tend to dissolve almost immediately, as all individual homes scatter in search of water, and with them, all notions of that small society disappears as well. In the Akombe Savannah, cities and societies constantly appear and disappear, living a life entirely without any notions of borders or nations. Nor do they make any use of agriculture what so ever, but live entirely on what the land naturally develops, for they believe that agriculture means enslaving the land, rather than living in reciprocal harmony with it. However, they do have technology that allows them to make more use of what the land does provide, so as to be able to sustain an ever-growing Akombean society. This way of living results in a society that is partly collectivist and partly individualist. In a city, all members of it take equal share in the goods harvested from the land, while everyone contributes to everyone's survival as best they can: hunters go hunting, hydrologists find and collect water, heliologists maintain the technology, teachers take care of everyone's children, and so on and so forth. But it is also individualist, for at any time, any member of said society can simply detach and find another city, which they might find more welcoming. These cities are created simultaneously for everyone's benefit and for one's own benefit. In the savannah, co-operation for the survival of the individual is everything. Religion The Akombeans have a much more pragmatic approach to religion. Where northern nations may be more zealous in their devotion to the gods, the Akombeans believe in a concept of "I give, so that you may give." Sacrifices and prayers are said solely as a means of trading. In a way, the Akombeans consider themselves equal to the gods themselves, for they do not believe in total surrender to the heavens, but rather a mutually respectful relationship, where neither part - mortal or immortal - goes unrewarded. Needless to say, the Akombeans often praise nature as the highest and most important deity, because of how it almost single-handedly decides whether they live or die. Sacrifices are made every week to appease nature to be merciful and bountiful, and many claim it works, others not so much. An almost 'atheistic' view is not uncommon among the Akombeans either. Many prefer to view nature not as a deity, but as an almost infinitely complex chain of algorithms that can - and must! - be deciphered, if they wish to survive. The way the river changes and oases appear and disappear is not simply by the hand of some arbitrary deity, but because of a very specific chain of geological events. Those professing this scientific approach to nature are often Hydrologists and Heliologists, and while they may be respected, their atheistic views are far from mainstream. History In ancient days, when the gods had first conceived of the idea of human kind and placed them in Shey along with the dragons, the Akombeans were simple nomads. They wandered the ever-changing savannah in tribes that did not make too many ripples in the water on the geo-political scale, but simply tried to get by. They were a very religious folk at the time, opting for odd rituals and auguries to find water, often without any luck. Unfortunately, they were not allowed to develop for very long, before the Gaun Eil trampled all of the savannah, enslaving every single Akombean they could find and establishing monstrous metropolises to oversee and dominate the land. However, all of that changed when the gods decided to eradicate all of human kind. Ten thousand years later, when the Silent Ages had come and gone, Akombeans appeared once more in the savannah, where they found the ruins of the Gaun Eil who had enslaved their predecessors. It took some years, but in time, the new Akombeans learned what had happened, and what technology had caused this mass extinction event. But rather than damn the technology, the Akombeans chose to wield it and repurpose it for a better, cleaner way of life. With the rise of the Academies, more developed society began to grow, and the old ways of superstition were cast away in favor of a scientific and learned approach to life and nature. Although, in the early years, before Akombean society had found stability, wars were fought over the scarce water resources and the rare technology, but once the technology had become wide-spread and decentralized enough, and a culture of mutual benefit and co-operation had been developed, wars seemed to become fewer and farther between. After a handful of centuries, the Akombeans reached a point in their society which they called 'ataraxia' - a word borrowed from old draconic society meaning "peaceful stillness", or "tranquility". At this point, wars seemed ludicrous, and all individual Akombeans enjoyed a life of peace and quiet. Even when the war between the three great factions erupted, the Akombeans refused the Sisterhood of Selen's offer for them to join their alliance, partly because they did not want to be dragged into any wars, and partly because of the Sisterhood's staunchly authoritarian caste-like system. Even while the rest of the world bathes in blood, the Akombeans remain unbothered, and simply continue their simple yet highly developed lives as they had been doing for centuries.